4.6 Reliability ????

djh3_88 · Apr 23, 2008

Well have been a FOX body guy for awhile. I sold my last FOX about a year ago and have just recently started looking at Stangs agin off and on. I guess I feel like I should "update" and started looking in the SN94 and up group. Mostly have been looking at 96's as they seem to be in the price range I want. Some milage seems high but I guess you have to really look at the car. Anyways I have noticed what seems to be a trend of alot of the 96-97-98 4.6 cars in the adds all say "new engine @ XXX miles" Quit a few of the 96's are that way around here in Fl. So my question is before I buy one of these things are the motors a 100,000 hand grande or what? The ole 5.0 would run for decades and not give ya a problem. I actually like the I think its 98 up cars, the rear looks better to me.
Is there a difference from the 96 motors to the 98?

Black_02_GT · Apr 23, 2008

the motors are the same... non PI 4.6s... performance improvement didnt come in until the 99+ as well as the body style change was at 99

Superhereaux · Apr 23, 2008

most taxi's and police cars (Crown Vics) use the 4.6 and rack up well over 200k without major issues and get BEATEN on

i'd say they're fairly reliable

98COBRA281 · Apr 23, 2008

96 gt=215hp, 98gt-225hp , same motor, i think i read some where that the 98 had a little more agressive tune, and a little bigger exhaust stock

BurningRubber · Apr 23, 2008

They are reliable and fairly low matenince motors.

Timing chains for a OHC setup is MUCH better than timing belts, that need replacing every so often.

Sure some blow up, but some of every motor blow up. Most likely due to lack of matinence or SEVERE abuse (too much boost, bad tune, so on).

djh3_88 · Apr 23, 2008

98Cobra281, you say the 96 is like 215 and 98 is 225hp. But one of the cars I'm looking at is a 96 with a 98 motor it will still be somewhere in the 215 range right? My reasoning is like if you say the more agressive timing etc, thats all done in the ECM. So if your still running the 96 ECM you get 96 model HP. Could I install a 98 ECM on the car and everything work I wonder. Hmmmm
I thought the 4.6's were pretty tough. There is a ton of them running around like someone said Taxi's cop cars etc. Heavens knows those get no breaks on use. I was reading about some sort of a manifold water leak problem that orginaly was a "recall" deal. What yr models I never did see a definate answer 98 to 04 is that right?

Black_02_GT · Apr 23, 2008

definate answer as far as what? 98 is the older body style with the non pi and 99-04 is the newer with PI upgrades... maybe im just confused? 99+ is rated at like 260 or so due to PI upgrades but the thing is, if you do a PI swap on the older non PI then you will actually be putting out more power than the newer models. just all in the compression

98COBRA281 · Apr 23, 2008

djh3_88 said:
98Cobra281, you say the 96 is like 215 and 98 is 225hp. But one of the cars I'm looking at is a 96 with a 98 motor it will still be somewhere in the 215 range right? My reasoning is like if you say the more agressive timing etc, thats all done in the ECM. So if your still running the 96 ECM you get 96 model HP. Could I install a 98 ECM on the car and everything work I wonder. Hmmmm
I thought the 4.6's were pretty tough. There is a ton of them running around like someone said Taxi's cop cars etc. Heavens knows those get no breaks on use. I was reading about some sort of a manifold water leak problem that orginaly was a "recall" deal. What yr models I never did see a definate answer 98 to 04 is that right?

the motors are exactly the same, you could just get a tuner, or timing adjuster, to make up the 10hp, i just installed my timing adjust today, havent drove it yet

BurningRubber · Apr 23, 2008

1996 was the beginning year for 4.6's in the Mustangs. All 1996-2004 V-8 Mustangs have a 2 valve/cylinder 4.6, except Cobra's and Mach 1's, which are 4 valves/cylinder.

96-98 are the non-pi years.

99-04 are the PI engines.

05+ Mustangs still have 4.6's but they are 3 valve's.

If you get a 96-98 the PI headswap is real popular (and affordable). It will make a tad more HP than a stock 99+ because of a minor bump in compression.

Ford settled the intake manifold problem, but I beleive the date for the fix is expired unless you are under the mileage, or it might not be valid at all anymore. Either way, not a hard swap if your stuck doing it yourself.

Winters98GT · Apr 23, 2008

Ford started to put PI heads in their vehicles in 1998 with the 5.4.

The mustang didnt get PI heads until 1999 in the 4.6. The heads are identical.

djh3_88 · Apr 24, 2008

OK thanks got some questions answered. Not to terrebly worried about the PI thing now as gas is so freak'n high and changes so often one of the local stations hired a guy just to change prices all day. Anyways I was trying to find out on the intake problem what years are prone to that? On the PI side you would have to swap heads and some other things to get the raise in HP PLUS change up the programing of the ECM. Can you do it by just changing ann ECM from say 99 ? By "adding a tuner or timing adjuster" I am asuming like a superchips type deal ?

COramprat · Apr 24, 2008

The cracked intake is popular in the 96-mid 99. If it has been replaced look for the aluminum intake runner in the front of the intake. If not it is only a matter of time. Some replace the NPI intake with a PI (I did) and use RTV to seal the ports where they don't match. Plenty of write-ups on that if you search.

Tuning is done several ways...most popular is by chip or handheld tuner. The head swap on a 96-98 would require a tune...just swapping ECM's wouldn't do it.

To set timing manually you would use a timing adjuster. Steeda makes a popular one.

My car has 190K+ miles with at least 100 trips down the quarter. The only issues I've had was the cracked intake, a bad pinion bearing and a bad throw out bearing. My shift fork broke but that was from abuse. Other than that is is a great car and runs like new.

98COBRA281 · Apr 24, 2008

steeda T/A FTW!!!!!! just put mine on yesterday, set it at 15* with 93 oct, no pinging what so ever, and so much more low end torque

mogs01gt · Apr 24, 2008

djh3_88 said:
Well have been a FOX body guy for awhile. I sold my last FOX about a year ago and have just recently started looking at Stangs agin off and on. I guess I feel like I should "update" and started looking in the SN94 and up group. Mostly have been looking at 96's as they seem to be in the price range I want. Some milage seems high but I guess you have to really look at the car. Anyways I have noticed what seems to be a trend of alot of the 96-97-98 4.6 cars in the adds all say "new engine @ XXX miles" Quit a few of the 96's are that way around here in Fl. So my question is before I buy one of these things are the motors a 100,000 hand grande or what? The ole 5.0 would run for decades and not give ya a problem. I actually like the I think its 98 up cars, the rear looks better to me.
Is there a difference from the 96 motors to the 98?

reliability, ok. Cop cars and taxis all run the SOHC 4.6 engine in them, they are known for going 200k+ without ever having the cam covers removed.

Besides, the 2004 Mustang Gt was rated America's most reliable car. That engine has pretty much been the same thing since 92.

Roos85 · Apr 24, 2008

I would say the 4.6 motor is pretty reliable because of the fact like other people have said they use them in police cars across the country. it all depends on how you take care of the car and all the maintenance you perform on it. get one

deftsound · Apr 24, 2008

i would venture to bet the 4.6 is more reliable than the pushrod 302

Mustang92 · Apr 24, 2008

Having just finished shopping for vehicles over the past 4 months I can tell you alot of people replace engines for dumb reasons. I ran into two people that replaced their engines because coolant was leaking everywhere (intake was cracked) and one of them ran it out of coolant and blew the head gaskets. I also ran into a few people that stripped the spark plug threads out and replaced the engine instead of trying to fix it.

My 2000 was beat on from day 1. At 1000 miles I hit the track and put over 1000 quarter mile passes on it, many launch on the rev limiter, I revved it to 6800 RPM for the last 20k miles that I drove it and when I pulled it apart to build a better engine it had 113k miles on it and still got 20 MPG. The cylinders looked like new and the only issue was worn valve seals. Give the abuse that car saw that was pretty impressive. I and a few others have seen taxi's with 400k miles on them.

In fact I just picked up a F250 with a 5.4L in it with 97k miles and it runs really good considering the abuse it's been put through. In my searches I even found 4-5 trucks with the same engine w/ over 200k miles.

Bill

d98gt · Apr 24, 2008

My 98 is near 200k miles and STILL meets the track quite often. Easily over 300 passes on the car and still running fine

The last few thousand miles even take the abuse of nitrous. These motors will last a long time aslong as the required main. is done.

scupking · Apr 24, 2008

Keep the power at or below 400 rwhp and they seem to last a very long time.

the98stang · Apr 25, 2008

Superhereaux said:
most taxi's and police cars (Crown Vics) use the 4.6 and rack up well over 200k without major issues and get BEATEN on

i'd say they're fairly reliable

Exactly. Durable and strong ass motor if you keep up on the general maintenance.

4.6 Reliability ????

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